Content design should adopt more of the language of design systems
Content designers talk a lot about “creating,” “writing,” and “designing” content when describing what they do, but not as much about “reusing,” “adapting,” “assembling,” “replicating,” or “reconfiguring” it. This may have something to do with the fact that we often associate words like “create,” “design,” and “write” with ideas of skill and craft more than words connected with concepts of reuse. It may also be connected with a deeply ingrained and socially-reinforced bias against the idea of reusing someone else’s words.
As content designers we’re constantly reusing content in various ways, and when we use words like “create,” “write,” or “design” to describe our field we often intend for concepts of reuse, iteration, and adaptation to be included by implication. But the words themselves often prioritize the concept of creation over reuse in a way that may emphasize the act of creating words from scratch over design craft, especially for audiences who are new to content design and design partners who are still learning about what we do and think we’re mostly wordsmiths.
Why don’t we draw more from the language of design systems when talking about our craft? Content designers are designers, and design systems are a critical design tool. It makes sense then that adapting more design system terminology (in the sense of the language commonly used to describe design system usage) could help content designers communicate more effectively to their design partners that content design is design. Most content designers realize that reusing, adapting, assembling, replicating, and reconfiguring content is just as critical a part of what they do as creating content from scratch, but we could do a better job of describing content design in a way that reinforces this.
Optimizing reuse and adaptation of existing content and creating templates, patterns, and repositories of examples to draw on are critical aspects of content design system sustainability. They help us create interface copy that feels consistent, familiar, and trustworthy. By designing tools and processes for reusing content, content designers can create more consistent copy, reduce redundant efforts and time spent hunting around for relevant copy examples, and empower their design partners to find and use approved copy more autonomously.
